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What's New At Good Old Boat

Disabled Boaters Unite!

–Brian and Carol McMahon

Greetings. We are not only good old boat owners but also good old boaters. Further, my wife is partially disabled with multiple sclerosis (MS). We keep our sailboat in Placida, Florida and spend three months a year on it during the winter season. Our primary residence is in Tennessee. For the past two seasons, much of our boating time has been spent at anchor in Charlotte Harbor.

While Charlotte Harbor is very beautiful, we would like to do more cruising along the SW Florida coast, the Keys, Dry Tortugas, and the Bahamas. These are places we frequented as younger sailors but are finding more difficult to access as age and disability move on.

We wonder if there are any boating clubs for senior and/or disabled boaters that specialize in group cruising activities. For example, due to my wife’s disability, I essentially singlehand the boat. It would be great to find a boating group whose members are interested in cruising on each other’s boats to provide that small amount of extra help, knowledge, and comradery to make the trip safe and fun. Also, joint cruising activities by multiple boats would also be very effective in providing emotional and physical support for disabled folks who would otherwise not attempt a cruise.

We know that there are many great yacht/boating clubs that sponsor group cruising activities. We, however, feel that our particular age and disability limitations would be better suited to a group of boaters with similar needs. We read once that a neurologist combined his medical and recreational boating skills to bring people with MS on sailing outings and thought it was a great idea.

Is anyone aware of existing boating clubs for sailors with special needs, or willing to start one? If so, please feel free to contact us at vulcan213@gmail.com.

The Tartan 34 Turns 50!

Tim J. Dull, Vice Commodore of the Tartan 34 Classic Association let us know that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Tartan 34, S&S design 1904. The sloop version was released to production on April 28 1967 and the yawl on October 11 of the same year. Wow.

To mark this milestone, the association is holding a celebration at the U.S. Sailboat Show at Annapolis this year, October 5. The group will meet at the Port Annapolis Marina, at the Overlook Pavilion. To join the celebration, visit the group's website for registration info. (http://tartan34classic.org/)-- MR

Thou Shalt Knot: Clifford W. Ashley

There are still old knots that are unrecorded, and so long as there are new purposes for rope, there will always be new knots to discover. – Clifford W. Ashley

The New Bedford Whaling Museum celebrates the work of the master knot maker, maritime artist, historian, and author Clifford W. Ashley in a monumental exhibition opening in one of the Museum’s most prestigious galleries. The exhibition includes the premiere of a recent gift to the Museum of Ashley’s private knot collection with interpretative material from the Museum’s private collection as well as the artist’s paintings, prints, and works by other knot experts and artists inspired by his work.

VIDEO AHOY!

There are countless stories out there of sailors converting their tiller-steered boats to wheel steering, fewer of sailors converting their wheel-steered boats to tiller steering (this is what I’d like to do), but Lee Werth is the only sailor I know of who modified his tiller-steered boat to include wheel steering. Lee sails Fayth, his 1973 Tartan 34C (hull #236), on Chesapeake Bay in the summer and on Neuse River, North Carolina, during the winter months. Check out Lee’s video, hosted on the Good Old Boat Magazine channel (our inaugural video) on YouTube. Click here to see Lee's video.

Eight Bells: Doug Peterson

Yacht designer Doug Peterson passed away in San Diego of colon cancer on June 26 at age 71.

I was aware of the boats that bore his name, the Kelly-Peterson 44 and Peterson 46 being the two I'm most familiar with. But I've since learned that Peterson designed two Americas Cup winners. That he was a Southern California native who had trouble in school for his inability to stop drawing boats. As a long-haired, bearded college dropout, Peterson apprenticed with designer Wendell Calkins before borrowing money from his grandmother to build his own 34-foot design. That boat was Ganbare and put Peterson on the world stage after she won the 1973 One Ton World Championships in Genoa, Italy.

Peterson's work is reflected in more than the good old boats that bear his name. He also drew boats for Islander, Baltic, Hans Christian, Jeanneau, Tartan, and Bavaria.

Farewell Mr. Peterson.
--MR

Navtec Closes Its Doors

Navtec, the sailboat rigging company known to many for its Norseman brand of swageless (or mechanical) rigging terminals and based in Guilford, Connecticut, has closed shop. Hayn, a competitor in the standing rigging market and known for its Hi-Mod brand of swageless fittings, bought Navtec's intellectual property assets at an auction in April. According to an excellent account in the July/Augusts issue of Ocean Navigator, Hayn's General Manager, Brett Hasbrouck, said that Hayn's plan for this acquisition is to "fill in the holes in our product offering to make it more complete…We will also be expanding to areas that Hayn did not offer. At some point in the future we will be offering a carbon rigging product."

Navtec's closure comes on the heels of another rigging manufacturer going out of business. Hall Spars & Rigging made custom and high-end spars for sailboat manufacturers and went into receivership in January. Ocean Navigator wondered whether these shut-downs are an indicator of the health of the industry. Thom Dammrich of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) cited data that suggests the industry is healthier than it's been in recent years. He said that these two companies derived a lot of business from the high-end market and the strong dollar has made that business difficult to sustain in the U.S. Charlie Nobles, Executive Director of the American Sailing Association was reported in Ocean Navigator as saying he believes the sailing industry has stabilized after some tough years. He said his organization is training as many new sailors as they ever have.
--MR